1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stepping motor driver which drives a stepping motor for position and speed control.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional stepping motor driver operates in a position-sensorless closed loop in which the terminal voltage of a motor is detected and compared with a reference voltage to detect the magnetic pole position based on the speed electromotive force of the motor and the excitation of the motor in the magnetic pole position based on the speed electromotive force is changed and the voltage applied to the motor is adjusted according to a position error as a difference between a position command and a magnetic pole position based on the speed electromotive force.
However, since this type of stepping motor driver detects the time of polarity reversal in the speed electromotive force of a motor, the detection resolution is insufficient, for example, when a subtle excitation position variation is needed for microstepping. In addition, a multipolar stepping motor has a high fundamental frequency and as the speed increases a current phase delay due to stepping motor winding inductance becomes larger. Therefore, when the excitation is changed according to the polarity reversal position in the speed electromotive force to adjust the applied voltage according to position error variation, high speed rotation beyond the range of saturation of applied voltage is difficult.